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Simply put, especially in the wrestling business, you can’t succeed in the future without appreciating the past.

With that in mind, every now and then I’d like to take look back and review a pay per view event from yesteryear to simply try and bring up some fond memories for those reading this piece. Or, in some instances, educate newer or younger watchers to let them know what they were missing out on. Since we’re in the heart of Survivor Series season, we’ll go back to the time that I, and I’m sure a lot of you reading, started watching professional wrestling. We’ll head to the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, CT for the 1990 Survivor Series.

This show included Hulk Hogan appearing NOT as WWF Champion, a rarity in the late 80s-early 90s, the only year to have the “Grand Finale Match of Survival” where the survivors of all the matches came back for one last elimination tag match, and also gave us a, shall we say “phenom-enal” debut!

So let’s log on to the WWE Network (it’s only $9.99/month and free for the month of November for new subscribers…not sure if you’ve picked up on that from watching Raw) and take a look at this blast from the past!

1990 Survivor Series

The show kicks off with Vince’s old-school “You’re Fired!” voice introducing all of the participants and all of the teams. I’ll say this; I miss the days of the named teams! Team Authority vs Team Cena just doesn’t do it for me. In 1990, we didn’t have Team Hogan vs Team Earthquake! No! We had a lot more creativity! We had The Hulkamaniacs vs The Natural Disasters! You could even keep The Authority name, just not Team Authority. The Authority vs The Cenation or Doctors of Thuganomics. Is that so hard?

From there we are introduced to tonight’s commentary team of Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper. I thought Piper was underrated as a commentator during his run from 1990-1991. Hard to sound bad when you have a great like Monsoon sitting next to you though! Not only are they introducing themselves, but they are also introducing that large egg that is sitting on the stage as well…oh boy!

The Perfect Team - Team Captain Mr. Perfect, Demolition (Ax, Smash and Crush)

Vs

The Warriors - Team Captain The Ultimate Warrior, Texas Tornado, Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

There’s a whole lot of face paint in the ring right now! We quickly saw an elimination as The Warrior pinned Ax in what turned out to be Ax’s last appearance in the WWF. A few minutes later half of the match was eliminated as the LOD and the remaining members of Demolition were disqualified for their brawl outside of the ring. This added to what should have been the biggest tag team program of the time with LOD vs Demolition, but it never surfaced. I still think that the Road Warriors vs Demolition would have made a better tag title match at WrestleMania 7 than The Hart Foundation vs The Nasty Boys did.

Mr. Perfect ended up eliminating the Texas Tornado, who never really got the momentum back after this even that he had after beating Perfect for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam just a few months prior. The Warrior followed that up with the final elimination of Perfect to become the sole survivor and move on to the Match of Survival.

The Dream Team - Team Captain Dusty Rhodes, Koko B. Ware, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart)

Vs

The Million Dollar Team - Team Captain Ted DiBiase, Mystery Partner, Rhythm & Blues (Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine)

This turned out to be the moment that changed the WWF for the next couple decades. Ted DiBiase grabbed the mic and announced that his mystery partner would be led to the ring by his manager Brother Love (which still just confuses me). The man that Brother Love was leading? Why it was the ne superstar making his debut - The Phenom himself The Undertaker. Couple interesting somewhat unknown facts about the debut. First, did you know that he was actually introduced as “Cain – The Undertaker”? It seems like every bit of video calling him “Cain” had been scrubbed out. But, thanks to a little investigating, I found Taker’s TV debut a few weeks after Survivor Series…

 http://youtu.be/RSUOp5fGTEg

Another interesting tidbit is that, according to rumors heard and told by Mick Foley, The Undertaker was not the initial character idea that was made for Mean Mark after he left WCW. I’ll get into greater detail on that a little later.

The match itself was mostly an introduction as to just how dominating The Undertaker can be as he quickly eliminated Koko B. Ware and Dusty Rhodes only to be counted out after going after Rhodes to finish the job. The match ended with a wrestling clinic put on by Bret Hart and DiBiase. Hart showed great heart (sorry, I had to) as he put on a tremendous performance just a day of his brother Dean passed away. DiBiase rolled through a high-crossed body for the roll up and the final pin to move on to the night’s final elimination match.

The Vipers - Team Captain Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, The Rockers (Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty)

Vs

The Visionaries - Team Captain Rick “The Model” Martel, The Warlord, Power & Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma)

This match was pretty much built around Martel “blinding” Roberts with his cologne “Arrogance.” Roberts came out with odd white contact lens and all to help sell the injury. This all led up to the big Blindfold Match at WrestleMania 7. The evolution of production costs and values have since given us blindfolds that you can’t actually tell where the eye holes are.

Not really much to this match itself other than, for the first time ever, all members of one team survived as all of The Visionaries moved on to the Match of Survival.

The Hulkamaniacs – Team Captain Hulk Hogan, Big Boss Man, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Tugboat

Vs

The Natural Disasters – Team Captain Earthquake, Dino Bravo, The Barbarian, Haku

I still say that the program of Hulk Hogan vs Earthquake was very underrated. Earthquake’s finishing move was probably done so many times by me and my brother I don’t know how we still had rib cages. They didn’t have the “Don’t Try This At Home” disclaimers back then so it was ok to do :). But to see ‘quake hit the move so much that it took the Immortal Hulk Hogan out of action was just unheard up. It led to an entertaining one-on-one match at SummerSlam at the elimination match here.

This was a back and forth match that never saw a team have more than just a one man advantage. At the time, it was hard to predict how the match was going to end. Nowadays, of course you knew that Hogan was going to be a survivor! The only question was would anybody on his team join him.

The answer would be “no” as Hogan was the sole survivor who moved to the final match.

Macho King Randy Savage Interview

We take a break from the matches to see what is going on with the Macho King. As he had been doing for weeks, Savage simply made his case to take on The Ultimate Warrior for the WWF title. Nothing really else came of it this time – other than Savage, after being asked what would be next after winning the WWF title, saying that he might just go ahead and retire. Now we all know, that was a very subtle way to start the rivalry that gave us the great Retirement Match between Savage and the Warrior at WrestleMania 7.

Just a quick side note – it seems like I have been mentioning a lot about the following year’s WrestleMania here. Keep that in mind as you watch this year’s Survivor Series. We have seen WrestleMania storylines start around this time of year. Just something to keep in the back of your head.

The Alliance - Team Captain Nikolai Volkoff, Tito Santana, The Bushwackers (Luke and Butch)

Vs

The Mercenaries – Team Captain Sgt. Slaughter, Boris Zhukov, The Orient Express (Sato and Tanaka)

Ugh! This was just a slow moving match. It really seemed like the only purpose of this match was to have Slaughter give a promo attacking the US troops that were watching on the Armed Forces Network (this being the first PPV show that was sent to the troops). Some people had issues with Slaughter becoming the Iraqi sympathizer (to the point that death threats were made). I really didn’t have a problem with it. Of course I didn’t agree with what he was saying or doing, but it led to the most patriotic WrestleMania there was with the LA Sports Arena drenched in red white and blue as Hulk Hogan finally beat Slaughter. Business wise, well the storyline led to the most pay-per-view buys that the WWF had to that point.

As for this match, Slaughter ended up attacking Santana with the Iraqi flag to get disqualified and made Tito the sole survivor who moved on. The finish also helped Slaughter look ruthless and saved the inevitable confrontation between Slaughter and Hogan.

The Hatching of the Egg

For weeks the WWF had been advertising this giant egg that would be ready to hatch at the Survivor Series. Speculation ran roughshod as to what was in there. As he introduced the egg, Mean Gene Okerlund suggested that some of the possibilities included a dinosaur, ballons, and the playmate of the month. Well, after a few cheesy egg cracking jokes, the egg finally exploded and we were introduced to ….

… The Gobbeldy Gooker …

… a giant turkey suit that was work by a member of one of the most famous wrestling families of all time, Hector Guerrero. Thank goodness Eddie (and to a much lesser extent Chavo) didn’t let THAT be the way the Guerrero family will be remembered in the WWF.

A few years ago, Mick Foley was on the Legends of Wrestling show with the topic being “Worst Characters.” Obviously the Gooker came up and Foley brought up a rumor he had heard that could have had GRAVE effect on the WWF (you’ll see what I did there in a little bit).

When Mark Calaway signed with the WWF, Foley heard that the initial idea for him would be to debut as “The Egg Man” and HE would be the one to come out of the egg. Foley went on to say that he could only think they took one look at the man and realized that “The Egg Man” would be a horrible horrible mistake and decided to go in a different path and the Gooker may have just been a late throw-in since the egg had already been so heavily advertised. If you haven’t figured it out yet, instead of The Egg Man, Mark Calaway became the conscience of the WWF, The Undertaker. Just take a moment to think about that one …

Grand Finale Match of Survival

The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana

Vs

Ted DiBiase, Rick “The Model” Martel, The Warlord, Power & Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma)

Not exactly the most exciting of ways to end a pay-per-view. The match started off as a back and forth bout, but quickly turned into nothing more than The Warrior and Hogan can take on anything as, after The Warlord and Tito were eliminated within the first two minutes, the rest of the match was the two biggest stars of the year dominating the remaining four members of the opposing team.

While I’m sure it was nice for guys like The Warlord, Paul Roma and Hercules to walk around saying they were in a WWF pay-per-view main event, the match left a lot on the table. It was the expected finish of the early 90’s.

While the finish of the show may not have been that memorable, the show as a whole was. To get yourself in the Survivor Series spirit, I recommend giving it a look.

What do you think of the show? What other shows would you like to have reviewed? Follow me @Tadigity24 and let me know what you think!

Every time I talk about this situation, I always preface it with this – I understand that the story-lines in professional wrestling are not real! They are not really punching each other – they are not really kicking each other, for the most part they don’t even dislike each other. Professional wrestling is better described as sports entertainment with an emphasis on entertainment.

This, however, is about the night where wrestling got real.

Most of you who are reading this know what happened on that fateful November evening north of the border. But I’m sure there are some that think something called the “Montreal Screwjob” would not be appropriate for this website. Here is a bit of an overview of the events that led up to the 1997 Survivor Series –

Bret Hart was the top name in Vince McMahon’s WWF in the mid-90s leading what was called “The New Generation” after the likes of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage left for Ted Turner’s WCW. In 1997, Hart also signed with Turner for what was at the time the largest contract ever for a wrestler. At the time he signed with WCW, Hart was the WWF Champion, so plans were laid out as to how Hart would lose the title before leaving the company.

The main event of the Survivor Series that November was a rematch of WrestleMania 12 with Hart taking on Shawn Michaels. The rivalry between Hart and Michaels didn’t stop when the cameras were turned off. The two had a very heated rivalry backstage – so much so that real fights broke out between the two. Losing the title cleanly to Michaels was something that Hart just did not want to do.

The Survivor Series in ‘97 took place in Canada (Montreal to be exact) where Hart was/is a bit of a national hero. What Hart had wanted to do, to save face in his country, was to end the title match with Shawn Michaels at the Survivor Series with a disqualification, or no contest – something that would see Bret leave that night with the belt. He would then walk on to Raw the following night, thank the WWF fans for everything, and hand the belt over.

McMahon, however, was very weary of that idea. WCW had been beating the WWF in the ratings war for over a year at that point. The war between the two companies was intense. On an episode of WCW’s Monday night show “Monday Nitro” Medusa, who at the time was the WWF Women’s Champion wrestling as Alundra Blayze, walked on to the Nitro set and dropped the WWF Women’s belt into the trash live on national television. Allowing Hart to leave the Survivor Series as champion, while NOT under contract, created a déjà vu situation that McMahon wanted to avoid…at ALL costs.

Hart wouldn’t budge though. In a final meeting to go over what would happen in the match, McMahon agreed to Bret that the match would end how he wanted and he would make his last appearance with the WWF the following night to hand the belt over.

At least that is what Vince told Bret.

After Bret left the meeting, Vince sat with Michaels and Triple H, who were also in the meeting, in a silence that said everybody was thinking the same thing. It was Triple H who made the initial statement, “F*** it! If he won’t do business, we’ll make him do business!” The match was supposed to end with Michaels putting Hart in his own finishing move, the SharpShooter, which Bret would reverse and lead to allies of both Michaels and Hart to come out and the match would end in a no-contest.

Unbeknownst to Hart though, McMahon had instructed the referee to call for the bell as soon as Michaels had Hart in the SharpShooter and awarded the match and the title to Shawn Michaels. Hart spat in McMahon’s face in the arena, went to the backstage area and punched him in the eye, and proceeded to head down south to WCW. With the exception of a Hall of Fame induction in 2006 and a quick interview spot in 2007, the WWF would not see Bret Hart again until hatchets were finally buried in 2010.

So that’s the story behind wrestling’s most controversial night. Everyone has questioned the events of that night and pointed the finger at each side. For the sake of discussion, I would like to throw out a couple simple “WHAT IF” scenarios.

WHAT IF Bret never signed with WCW and stayed with WWF?

Quite honestly, I think Bret leaving the WWF would be inevitable. The WWF was going through the transition from “The Next Generation,” a time where the show was almost completely made for children to the “Attitude Era,” a time where the show was something that some parents were trying to keep their children from watching.

Hart showed a little attitude during his run as a heel before he left the WWF in 1997, but I get the sense that Bret Hart the man would want nothing to do with the antics that were happening during the Attitude Era. In no way is that a shot at Bret though – guys like Bruno Sammartino disassociated themselves completely from the WWF during this time and they’re still considered to be amongst the greatest of all time. It’s just a clash of styles. Bret was great for the mid 90s, may not have been as great for the late 90s.

WHAT IF McMahon stuck to the original match plan and allowed Bret to leave Survivor Series with the title.

To me, this would have been a near fatal blow to the WWF, and it has nothing to do with what would happen the next night. Whether Bret would simply drop the belt the next night on Raw or if he would drop the belt…in a trash can…the next night on Nitro is irrelevant.

Without the events of that night and the one-on-one sit down interview that aired on Raw eight days later that gave us the infamous “Bret screwed Bret” line, we may not have been introduced to the biggest villain character of the attitude era – Mr. McMahon. With no Mr. McMahon, there would be no Austin/McMahon rivalry which ruled 1998 and basically saved the company.

Although he probably wasn’t thinking about it at the time, Vince needed the heat that was generated from the Montreal Screwjob to create the character that would give the WWF fans someone they were longing to see be stopped. In one of the DVD documentaries, Vince said that his reaction to the heat was “you hate me – ok, let’s go with that then.”

And go with it he did.

A few months after the Montreal Screwjob, a Monday Night Raw main event of Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Mr. McMahon gave the WWF their first win over WCW’s Monday Nitro in the ratings in over 85 weeks and they never looked back. I am sure that the Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara and the rest of the writing staff for the WWF would have come up with other ideas for 1998, but it’s hard to imagine they would have come up with something that had the success that the Austin/McMahon feud did.

If you think about it, the real culprit in this situation was WCW and the Monday Night War. If WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff hadn’t played several underhanded tricks against his competitor (such as giving away Raw results and the aforementioned championship belt trashing) McMahon would probably have no issue with allowing his company’s most prestigious prize, the championship belt, to be in the hands of a wrestler who was under contract to another organization.

Simply put, McMahon had his back against the wall and needed to make a difficult decision. The decision he made was the right one. In the infamous “Bret screwed Bret” interview, Vince also made reference to the “time honored tradition” that Bret didn’t follow. It’s simple – to put it in the terms of the old territory days, Vince was the promoter. It is the wrestlers job to perform based on what is laid out by the promoter.

It’s not the way that Hart, McMahon, and even Shawn Michaels should be remembered. Shawn said it best that night in 2010 when hell froze over and Bret Hart was back on Raw. When you think of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, you shouldn’t think of Montreal, you should think of Anaheim and the two putting on an unprecedented WrestleMania performance in the 60-minute Iron Man Match at WrestleMania XII.

Montreal is not how they should be remembered, but it was a night that will forever be etched in the stone of wrestling history.

Professional Wrestling is scripted – but life isn’t.

We are just days away from the biggest party of the summer!

And this year the biggest party gets even bigger with the WrestleMania treatment of a four-hour show. It looks like what could be a solid card with matches like Kevin Owens vs Cesaro (not confirmed yet but likely), John Cena vs Seth Rollins the Divas Revolution elimination match and of course the rematch of the most memorable moment in recent wrestling history with The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar. But there still seems to be a little missing from a proper SummerSlam feel.

This could be a good thing though. I remember thinking after the Raw before WrestleMania that the buildup didn’t really live up to proper WrestleMania level build up. The show itself, however, was absolutely phenomenal.

I’m not saying that SummerSlam will be on par with WrestleMania 31, but if you are going to make it a four-hour show, you need to make sure it has a four-hour show feel.

So, to help you get ready for this year’s version of the biggest show of the summer, let’s take a look back at once of the earliest editions of the summer spectacle.

SummerSlam 1990

To give us the full late 80s early 90s feel, we are welcomed to the show by the glorious over the top voice of Vince McMahon. McMahon introduces tonight’s double, yes that’s right DOUBLE main event of Hulk Hogan vs Earthquake and The Ultimate Warrior vs Ravishing Rick Rude for the WWF Championship in a FIFTEEN FOOT HIGH steel cage! Thinking about it, back then I really don’t think commentators were allowed to talk about the steel cage without referencing the fact that it was indeed a fifteen foot high steel cage.

We are then taken into The Spectrum in Philadelphia with a rabid crowd ready for the show to begin. Our play by play man tonight is Vince himself. On color, a man that McMahon accurately describes as “the reason for the roar of the crowd” Rowdy Roddy Piper. Obviously need to take a minute here. How heartbreaking was Piper’s passing? Not to sound too cynical here, but with how some of the stars from that era are looking these days, did you EVER think that Piper would be one of the next to go?

What a legend he was! Still on the short list of best talkers ever. Nobody could generate heat like Piper could. I’ve heard several stars say it before I firmly agree that there would be no Hulk Hogan and no Hulkamania if the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection that skyrocketed the WWF into the mainstream didn’t revolve around everyone wanting to see Hogan just kick Piper’s ass! RP brought you in and gave you a show that you would remember. “Just when they think they’ve got the answers, I change the questions!” Thank you Roddy – we’ll miss you!

The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)

Vs

Power & Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) w/Slick

First off, McMahon says that our first match should be, and I quote, “A hum-dinger!” … just thought that was worth sharing!

The Rockers head down to the ring, but not nearly as fast as they normally do. Reason – Michaels is nursing a legit knee injury and can’t compete. To get him out of the match, The Rockers are distracted by Slick, Herc and Roma sneak up from behind and Hercules drives his chain right into Michaels’ knee – he’ll be on the floor for the duration of this match.

I’m assuming you’re watching this on the WWE Network (and why wouldn’t you? It’s only $9.99 if you haven’t heard!) Here’s a funny little side note – did the choice of camera angle and Vince’s voice for this spot seem a little off? Well it was. I had a VHS recorded copy of the live event and the director of the show completely missed the chain shot. So those watching at home had absolutely no idea why Michaels seemed to be having a seizure on the floor. So they had to replace the video and audio to show what happened. I just thought that was interesting.

The match ends up being a glorified (pun intended) handicap match with Jannetty giving it a good run. Power & Glory win using what I think is a phenomenal finisher, especially for its time. Hercules hits a suplex from the top rope on Jannetty and in perfect sync Roma follows with a splash from the opposite corner. Looked great!

INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Mr. Perfect (c) w/Bobby Heenan

Vs

“The Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich

This match was originally scheduled to be a WrestleMania rematch with Perfect defending his title against Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. Unfortunately Beefcake suffered a horrific injury from a boating accident and had to be taken out of the match. So Von Erich debuts in the WWF weeks before SummerSlam and says “Hey, I’ll fill in!”

Both men had solid backstage interviews with Mean Gene prior to the match – which helped because the match itself was not that long. Perfect and Von Erich made the most of the time they were given but I would have liked to have seen a longer match.

Von Erich, who again has only been in the company for a couple cups of coffee, beats Perfect and wins the Intercontinental Championship. Crazy part of all this – something I learned watching The Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW – thanks to a motorcycle accident, Von Erich did this with half a foot! Still looked pretty good!

We go to the back where Mean Gene is ready to interview one of the competitors in the next match, Sweet Sapphire … … … OR IS HE???? Sapphire doesn’t show up for the interview! Instead, Perfect and Heenan storm in and give another promo of gold. But wait, what happened to Sapphire? Well, her match was next. Maybe she just already went to the ring…

Sweet Sapphire

Vs

Sensational Queen Sherri

… NOPE! Sherri is in the ring – all decked out in a silver and black dress/mask/face paint get up that looks like she just got out of The Black Hole at a Raiders game! “American Dream” hits the speakers and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sapphire…but we get nothing. Try playing the music again…nothing. Howard Finkel is told that Sapphire has a 10 count to get to the ring or she forfeits the match. After a very loud countdown from Sherri that hits 0, Sherri is awarded the match by forfeit.

McMahon and Piper had been mentioning gifts that Sapphire had been receiving over the last few weeks – could that have something to do with her disappearance? Hhmmm …

Mean Gene is now with Dusty Rhodes who has no idea where Sapphire, the woman that has been by his side for nearly a year, has gone. Love Hacksaw Jim Duggan randomly walking into the shot to let Dusty know that he doesn’t know where Sapphire is. Rhodes then goes offer a list of the items Sapphire has received such has a Cadillac, a diamond bracelet, fur coat, cruise around the world, etc. Okerlund references the fact that she was told she would receive the biggest gift of all at SummerSlam. It sounds like all these gifts cost a lot of money … … … hhmmm …

The Warlord w/Slick

Vs

Tito Santana

Santana finishes his run through the Powers of Pain here after losing to The Barbarian at WrestleMania 6 months before. It was a little sad for me to see a Hall of Famer like Tito Santana used in a glorified jobber role for most of this year. The best part of this match is Piper’s random Mexican food jokes. The Warlord wins a squash match – and then we move on.

TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP – 2 OUT OF 3 FALLS

Demolition (c) (Smash and Crush … and then Ax)

Vs

The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart)

Ax and Smash had recently added a third member of Demolition, Crush. To keep things fair, they were told that only two members were allowed to be at ringside for the match. Since their the bad guys, I’m sure the two that come down for the match, Smash and Crush, will be the only two members that we see tonight.

I consider this match to be one of the most underrated in SummerSlam history. The ring psychology and crowd reaction was amazing. Demolition takes the first fall after hitting their finisher. Wrestling 101 – in a 2 out of 3 falls match, whoever wins the first fall is doomed to lose the second!

What do you know! The Harts win the second fall to tie things up! Shocking!

During the confusion between the second and third fall, the third member of Demolition, Ax, runs down while the refs back is turned and hides under the ring. It only takes minutes for Ax to switch places with Smash to give Demolition the unfair advantage. Vince is playing this off as Ax and Smash look nearly identical so the ref can’t tell them apart. OK, stop! When Ax and Smash debuted in 1987, yes they looked eerily similar – especially with the face paint. That lasted a couple months. After that, they still tried of several occasions to pull of the two looking alike. One was tan and one wasn’t – one had long hair one didn’t – COMPLETELY different face pain patterns now. Really made the refs seem dumb!

Anyway, back to the match! To help clear things up, here comes the Legion of Doom. Animal pulls the extra member of Demolition out from under the ring and Hawk knocks Crush off the top rope. The confusion gives Neidhart to hit a big shoulder block on Crush, Bret rolls him up and The Hart Foundation are your new tag team champions!

That takes us to the intermission portion of the show – which consists of backstage interviews and a five minute period of literally nothing but looking at a clock counting down from five minutes (though that gem was edited out for the Network).

Quick rundown of the interviews –

• Legion of Doom and The Hart Foundation – A very large amount of screaming, and what Bret Hart would probably consider his screaming.
• Demolition – Well, Sean Mooney standing outside of Demolition’s locker room so we can hear mumbled yelling in the background.
• Sensational Queen Sherri – Talks about the “rumors” she heard about Sapphire’s gifts. Fantastic line –
• Mean Gene “Sensation Sherri, I don’t see anything funny about a missing person!”
• Sherri “I said she was missing! I didn’t say anything about her being a person!”

And we’re back from intermission!

Bad News Brown

Vs

Jake “The Snake” Roberts

Special Referee – Big Boss Man

The premise of this match is that Bad News is bringing “200 pounds of sewer rats” that he wants to feed Roberts’ snake, Damian, to. Jake brings his trust bag-o-snake with him and Bad News has a mysterious covered black box that we are told are the rats…though we never see them.

The match is pretty so-so. Best part of it is Jake giving Bad News the old, um, Fireman’s Salute. Roddy Piper chimes in with “Jake says ‘I don’t give up!’ … That’s how you say that in wrestling.” As a kid, I kind of thought that was true – though I luckily never told a teacher of family member that I don’t give up.

Bad News hits Roberts with a chair twice and gets the DQ. He then tries to go after the Big Boss Man for disqualifying him but Jake saves the day by opening the bad and rolling out Damian.

…and we move on.

The Brother Love Show w/Sgt. Slaughter

There is not a man my age that didn’t hate Brother Love and the Brother Love Show as a kid but feel all sorts of nostalgic watching an edition now! This was the first major appearance for Slaughter after turning his back on his country-though he wasn’t as pro-Iraq as he would be down the road just yet. I didn’t really have a problem with Sgt. Slaughter as the Iraqi sympathizer (you can check out review of the 1990 Survivor Series for a more detailed reason as to why - http://www.drinkfive.com/fantasy-football-nfl/item/148-looking-back-at-the-1990-survivor-series )

An interview with The Orient Express is interrupted as Mean Gene spots Sapphire! We go to Mean Gene who gets the door slammed in his face. Apparently Sapphire doesn’t want to talk right now. At least she is safe so that’s a good thing…right?

The Orient Express (Sato and Tanaka) w/Mr. Fuji

Vs

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff

To start things off here, we are treated to Duggan and Volkoff singing “God Bless America” together … I’ll just let you take a second to let that sink in.

The match…well…it happened. That’s about the most I can say. Oh, Duggan and Volkoff won.

In the back, Dusty Rhodes is at the door that Sapphire had slammed shut to let her know Rhodes’ match is next and they need to go…to no avail.

Dusty Rhodes

Vs

“Macho King” Randy Savage

Dusty is far from the jubilant “American Dream” that we normally see coming to the ring. Polka dots never looked so serious.

I understand the allure of having the “first ever” mixed tag match, but I really wish THIS would have been the match we got at this year’s WrestleMania. Two legends going one-on-one is what WrestleMania is all about.

The match starts and...wait…I hear the sound of the most recognizable laugh in wrestling history – “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. DiBiase comes out to remind Dusty Rhodes that “everybody has a price” by revealing that HE is the one who bought Sapphire away from Rhodes! Sapphire comes out in her new fur coat, diamond necklace, diamond ring and a bag full of money. A little different from the polka dotted sweater we had been accustomed to seeing her in.

Dusty goes after DiBiase but Savage hits him from behind and brings him back to the ring to officially start the match. Like Perfect and Von Erich, this was a good match between Hall of Famers that should have gone longer. Savage hits Rhodes with a loaded purse handed to him by Sherri and picks up the win.

Backstage we see DiBiase, his bodyguard Virgil and Sapphire getting into a limo. Dusty catches up to them but is just too late as the limo takes off. Rhodes tries to chase it down but can’t because…well…it’s an automobile, and we are left with a sad image of Rhodes just standing in disbelief in the garage.

Earthquake w/Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo

Vs

Hulk Hogan w/Big Boss Man

That takes us straight to our double main event as the tremors start and Earthquake makes his way to the ring. Hogan follows and gets the typical Hulkamania reaction from the crowd. He may not get the same type of reaction these days…at least not from a demographic or two.

A really underrated match – Earthquake was a great big man performer. He really held his own in what was his first main event level program. During the match, Earthquake has Hogan in a bear hug. Instead of giving up, Hogan decides to rip a section of the ref’s shirt off. So…that happened.

After “Hulking” out of Earthquake’s finisher, the two take the fight outside where Hogan slams the 400 pounder on the table left from Bad News Brown’s sewer rat cage (which was apparently the only reason the cage was out there). Hogan comes back in and wins by count-out. I think its funny that Hogan looks happier from that count-out win than he did winning the title a couple times.

As the crew sets up the cage for the final match, we get a few more backstage interviews in including one with a distraught Dusty Rhodes. He’s not sad though, he’s mad. He hints that the fun-loving, polka dot wearing man that was introduced to the WWF the previous year is gone and he’s going to get bad again. Will the Dusty Rhodes that won the NWA Heavyweight Title on multiple occasions how up in the WWF? Well, kind of. The polka dots were gone but Rhodes didn’t stick around long enough before heading back to WCW in early 1991.

WWF Championship – Steel Cage Match

The Ultimate Warrior (c)

Vs

“Ravishing” Rick Rude w/Bobby Heenan

I miss the old blue bar cage!

During his backstage interview, The Ultimate Warrior gave us this gem… “Do you know what Rick Rude and Bobby Heenan have in common with the Liberty Bell? … One is cracked and one is a ding-dong!”

…

…(pause for awkward silence)

…

Both men enter the cage…and I tell you, this cage is so high! If I had to guess I would say it is a ten, maybe even twelve foot high steel cage. If ONLY I had someone to tell just how tall this particular stell cage is!

The Warrior has never been described as being one of the best in-ring technicians in history. However Rick Rude always seemed always seemed to get the best out of him and this match was no different. The two used the cage very well creating scenarios that made it seem like either man could win the match.

In the end The Warrior climbed over the top of the cage, did a little Rick Rude hip shimmy for good measure and landed on the floor to keep the WWF Championship.

All in all it is a very solid show. I consider it to be one of the best top to bottom shows the WWF had in that era. Definitely one to get you in the proper SummerSlam mood.

What do you think of the show? What other shows would you like to have reviewed? Follow me on Twitter @Tadigity24 and let me know what you think!